


Adapt and Survive

by TheatricalAssassin



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Earth is Space Australia, Earth is a Death World, Gen, Humans Are Deathworlders, Humans are space orcs, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Medicine, Outer Space, Yearly Physical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 22:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10818231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheatricalAssassin/pseuds/TheatricalAssassin
Summary: A new species has joined the Galactic Federation, and that means everything has to be updated. Chief Medical Officer Glit has decided that he needs to take this opportunity to get hands on experience with Terrans to better understand their health.And Warrant Officer Smith is more than willing to cooperate in this matter.





	Adapt and Survive

Ever since humanity has joined the Galactic Federation everything has been just a mess. Everything that has been so carefully constructed to avoid conflict with other nations just thrown out the window as decades worth of work now have to be rewritten from the ground up to accommodate the new species. Safety regulations are largely made in broad strokes to begin with but with the addition of the Terrans there’s just no way to make it without trying to figure out just what exactly they _need_ for safety.

While Glit wasn’t there for all the talks and meetings, as it wasn’t his job to draft such protocol only enforce it, today his job is to run one of the Terrans through some exams. While their doctors have already provided him with a new physical to establish a baseline of health according to their standards, he needs to see how they cope with the life on the ship and see how many accommodations they and any other Terrans will need.

At the moment, they only had one Terran on board. Though as time goes by Glit was sure this number would only grow. Today was the day that he had been dreading, physicals were bad enough but the new crewmate was likely unaware of procedures just as he was unfamiliar with their physiology. The medical bay pinged him, it was time to go and get this over with.

The terran sat on the bed uncomfortably, still wearing their exosuit. Glit couldn’t tell where they were looking but the front of their helmet was facing him so it was a safe bet that they were looking at him. Why hadn’t they taken it off? If they needed a different atmosphere or some other fatal incompatibility and the Federation sent them to this ship anyway he was going to have someone’s head. This will have to be solved quickly.

“Good afternoon,” he started looking at his reports “I’m Chief Medical Officer Glit, I will be performing your physical today.”

“Good afternoon sir” the Terran responded curtly

“Is there any reason you have not removed your exosuit?” He took his seat adjacent to his patient.

“Oh that, uh, well you see sir” Their movements began to become restrained and tense “When I was taking off the outer part of it the system had an alert to not take the rest of it off because of the atmosphere differences. Said there in the hanger it wasn’t safe enough so I just, haven’t taken it off yet.” They explained

“And has this alert gone away since coming further into the ship?” Glit asked already feeling his blood pressure rising

“I’ve dismissed it since getting in here but it hasn’t come back.”

Glit looked back at his reports, the Terran _should_ be able to survive without it. If not he is trained to get them air should an emergency arise. Step 1 is figuring out if this is worth the risk. Logically speaking, he can’t actually give the them their physical without a means to allow his tools some kind of contact, they are designed to be used on a crewmate’s bare outer layer or through thin material such as their uniforms. The readings will not be correct if gotten through their suit meant for _space walking._ With this final thought, Glit decided that it was the best course of action to have them remove their helmet. Before doing this however he quickly made a note in his computer.

_Patient was advised by exosuit systems to not disengage their helmet due to an unsafe atmosphere. The exam cannot take place so long as they continue to wear their suit, Doctor Glit has advised them in the removal of their helmet to start the exam._

He left the rest of the note blank, if this was going to go bad, he would have his report already started but if it was going to be fine then everything can continue.

“I’m going to need you to remove your helmet.” Glit said still looking at his monitor

“Sir?” the Terran asked incredulously

“You’ll be okay” he said hiding his fear

Slowly they disengaged their helmet, it hissed slightly and Glit tensed, and carefully rested it on their lap. A few moments of silence pass, they appeared to be breathing normally. Good, they didn’t die. The exam can move on.

“Can you state your name, rank, and species please.” Glit said

“Warrant Officer Smith, Human.” They said

“You’re full name please.” He said exasperated

“Janet Nerida Smith” They corrected

“I understand it is considered polite ask pronouns on your planet, can you confirm what yours are so I may make a note of it in your documentation?”

“She/Her is fine” Smith said “So uh, what exactly are you going to do? I mean I already had my physical both on Earth and at the Station before I was shipped out.”

“Just going to compare it to the report I was given, besides I do need on-hand experience with what a healthy human looks like so this physical will help me establish a baseline.” Glit explained “I will need you to take off the rest of your suit though, please stay in your uniform. I don’t need you that bare.”

“Oh, glad to help then.” She said disrobing

With a nod Glit picked up a tool that earned a confused look from his patient, she eyed with curiosity but said nothing. In her file it stated her resting heart rate to be 60 bpm, listening and counting he found that it was closer to 75 bpm, but this could be different due to stress or anxiety. Regardless this was listed as a healthy range for her to be in, so he disregarded the difference and simply noted it. Next he walked behind her and held it against her back, where her left lung should be.

“Take a deep breath for me” He said

She did and everything sounded okay, but at the same time he wasn’t sure, he had no baseline for what human lungs should _sound_ like. The fact that she wasn’t struggling to breath told him that she was okay. They repeated this on the other side and found much of the same. He wrote down that her respiratory function was optimal.

“Have you been previously injured?” Glit asked ready to type

“Yes, so many times.” Smith said with a chuckle “Where should I even start?”

“With your most recent I suppose” Internally he groaned, thinking ‘ _amazing, they’re made of spun glass’_

“Lets see... I broke two ribs, my arm, and my collarbone in a car crash.” she started “That also tore up a lot of muscles and I had to be in physical therapy for a while, I’m told I’m lucky to still have a functioning hand.”

Glit was horrified, he’d seen what their vehicles looked like, he knew they also were _proud_ of how safe they were. Injuries like that, there’s no way she _should_ have survived. Very lucky indeed.

“Before that I was hospitalized because of my appendix, that was a whole ordeal.”

“What exactly...” he paused, trying to hide the shock in his voice “Happened?”

“Oh, it exploded” She said as if she were commenting on the weather “I thought it was just menstrual cramps and ignored it.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. How can one just? _Ignore_ an organ **_exploding?_ ** And how does one misattribute the pain that goes with that to menstrual cramps? Everything he ever read said that the pain that those who menstruate is minimal if present at all.

“Yea that’s the reaction I get from most men-folk” She said unfazed “I take it that you don't do that?”

“Uh... no...” He struggled to hide his shock “Zho don’t menstruate, so hearing this is... surprising to say the least.” She was silent seemingly accepting this answer "Is there anything you need in regards to this? Is there supplies or something else? As detailed as my reports were regarding Terran health there were rather sparse when it came to this."

"That's not shocking at all." She said indignantly "But NASA was afraid that we were going to not have enough menstrual supplies to make our time out here so they sent all of us with reusable cups and pads. So I'll need somewhere where I can disinfect those items when I'm not currently using them."

"I understand" He made a note to have medical grade disinfectant sent to their quarters and that all menstruating Terrans will need them. "Why was NASA afraid you wouldn't have enough?"

"They had no idea how many tampons Sally Ride would need to go to space in 1982, do you really think they'd know any better now?" She said with a laugh, a joke apparently

"Is there any other accommodations in this regard?"  He asked, not quite sure what to expect from her

"Uh, painkillers would be nice? But I _can_ function without them.”

Glit wasn’t sure what to write. Smith clearly said that she was able to work without painkillers but at the same time he couldn’t find it in his oath anywhere that allowing someone to remain in pain when he is aware of it and has the power to stop it as being anywhere in the realm of ethical. A quick search showed that over the counter painkillers such as ibuprofen were generally used for this kind of pain. While they didn’t have that specifically, they had a similar medicine that had been declared safe for Terran use, he made a note to allow Smith access to it when she needed it.

“Thank you for your time Officer Smith,” Glit said standing up “I believe we’re done here.”

“Oh, okay then” Smith said confused “Take care doctor” She gathered her suit and left.

Taking a deep breath he could tell this was already going to be a long voyage. Looking after this human wasn’t going to be fun. After so many serious previous injuries they would have to be mad to allow her back into the field, any one of them by themselves should have put her out of commission. Time would only tell if she was fit for duty in accordance to the Federation’s standards, and for her sake he hoped so.

**Author's Note:**

> I love those Humans Are Deathworlders posts so, I made a fic.
> 
> I might start this as a series, with Smith as the star. Who knows, we'll see how this is taken. 
> 
> That bit about Sally Ride is true, NASA legit asked her if 100 tampons were enough for 7 days in space and lmao no that is not enough.
> 
> I have no idea if it would be more useful for a astronaut to take some form of birth control to skip out on a period (hell i do it and all i do is write) when being in space for years at a time or just letting them deal with it without them having to worry about where they're going to get their next one. Nexplanon (the implant) lasts for 3 years so I would imagine for a 3 year trip that would be the one, there's also the fact of "will they even think of this as an option" because Mirena (the hormonal IUD) can lighten one's period or make it go away totally _and_ it lasts for 6 years. ParaGuard lasts twice as long but I was never able to find anything that said they were able to make one's period go away. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ basically not really knowing how NASA intends on dealing with this come time for the Mars Missions I just gotta assume that if we did join the Federation they'd just throw reusables at them and hope for the best.


End file.
